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[GhaleonEB]

Dunno - different playstyles, I guess. Ghal has talked about how frustrating Legendary can be, and with the exception of the telepathic Wraiths (that can pinpoint you through any number of obstacles) and plain AI cheating (like yesterday's FRG Brute), I can't really see his point, either. I have a ton of fun on Reach's Legendary. (WAY more fun than H2's Legendary, for example.)

I'll take a crack at it.

I love playing Halo 1 and Halo 3 on Legendary. Part of the reason those games were tough yet fun was because while there were more enemies and they were tougher, the Chief wasn't reduced to a delicate flower to make it hard.

Take the game on Legendary Firefight I had the other night with Fyre and company. Beachhead, and everyone else is dead. I'm running from Jackals and Hunters. I snag rockets, and tag a Hunter with all four. He's not dead.

I run down to the waterfront and grab the Spartan Laser there, and scope in for the kill....and die. I was at full health! Not from a grenade. Not from a FRG.

From a Jackal. On Legendary, an overcharge shot from a Jackal strips yours shields and puts you deep in the red for heath. The Jackal followed up with a couple plasma shots, so he killed me in less than one second. One Jackal.

I don't find that kind of difficulty fun.

But there's more to it. Because I'm so fragile, Brutes and Elites can one-punch me to death, and it can take 3-4 hits to kill say, a Jackal.

Now factor in the base traits. If a plasma grenade gets tossed near me, I will try to avoid it. Only, my momentum prevents me from changing directions quickly, my base speed prevents me from moving fast enough when I do, and my low jump means I can't get out of the way in time, and the speed with which plasmas blow up means I die, despite reacting fast enough.

That means close quarters combat is out of the question. And since guys like Jackals can kill you instantly, that means Legendary on Reach is all about hunkering down and doing nothing but long range fights, hoping not to get hit because I'm such a fragile little thing. And that's not fun; Halo is fun to be because of all the options I have at my disposal, and Legendary in Reach strips a huge swath of those options away.

In Halo 3 Legendary, I would still rumble toe to toe with Brutes and other enemies, since they didn't kill me instantly. I still used the full combat sandbox because the game still encouraged it (and even required it - the range of the BR prevented super long range donging).

It felt, in short, more fair. Reach's Legendary does not feel fair to me, and I can't stand it.

Obviously, I can't explain why you have fun with it. I'm glad you do! But I think Legendary in Reach is really, really borked.

 

[Woorloog]

popups off.

Gotta remember this... Wonder how i'm going to remember this.
Not that it really matters since i'm pretty sure someone is going to bother me while i play anyway...

EDIT Ghaleon sums up some of the Reach's issues nicely above.
EDIT i'll note that on Heroic, Elites and Brutes have always been able to one-shot melee the player. But not on Normal, not without a Hammer or Sword. In Reach some of them can one shot the player with melee even on Normal without a melee weapon.

 

[Homeboyd]

Legendary. There is no other option for the first time playthrough.

Technically there's three other options . Unless of course Halo 4 gets new difficulties. Wonder if they will stay the same.

 

[squidhands]

Gotta remember this... Wonder how i'm going to remember this.
Not that it really matters since i'm pretty sure someone is going to bother me while i play anyway...

Preferences - Appear Offline
Notifications - Off
Play Halo 4

enjoy

 

[789shadow]

Always go Normal for any first playthrough of a game.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I always do Heroic solo for my first run through a Halo Campaign, and then Legendary solo.

 

[Woorloog]

Preferences - Appear Offline
Notifications - Off
Play Halo 4

enjoy

Appear offline is not needed. Never been an issue. Notifications off is enough.
The question is, how do i remember to set notifications off. I usually prefer having them.

Also, won't stop people IRL bothering me.

 

[Beckx]

A campaign should be fun enough to make you want to replay it. Not force you to replay it to find collectibles etc.

In one of the (rare) times he wasn't smacking around idiots, Hideki Kamiya posted on twitter that he thought one of things missing this generation was "love for video games" - focus on collectibles versus just playing for the love is maybe the best example of how love has been replaced with cold skinner box BS.

Halo 3 Terminals were amazing. I prefer them more than Anniversary's terminals. Don't get me wrong, the Anniversary terminals were great but I love the interactivity of 3's terminal. The story content was amazing at that time and there are some questions open. I hope Halo 4 and Silentium answers some of those question. Maybe I should ask Voc at PAX.

Absolutely. And not just the interactivity, but the fact that the content changed as you moved up difficulty levels.

There should be interactive voices that you can purchase for your spartans like how there's battlefield banter while playing Gears MP in Halo 4 and how you could in Firefight in Reach.

"NICE." is probably my favorite things ever after a perfect Active Reload out of Marcus.

"Nothing but bits" is mine. But I'll be happy if I never have to hear "We got enemies incoming, aw shit" ever again. Ever. Again.

 

[Trey]

U4ix's little aside talmbout your dude saying things in response to you doing something in game reminds me of the little giggle Noble Six would randomly do when you got a headshot in campaign.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

A campaign should be fun enough to make you want to replay it. Not force you to replay it to find collectibles etc.

Exactly. If a campaign isn't fun then I don't give a shit how many collectibles you put in it, I'm not going to play it. And odds are if your campaign sucks that badly I'd probably sell the game. While I love multiplayer my first love will always been a great campaign that can keep me playing it time and time again. That's one reason I'm as big a Bungie fan as I am. I really do hope that 343 can live up to Bungie's ability to keep me hooked into campaign. Although to be honest I am skeptical. I'm going to give them a fair chance to though. I really am.

 

[Karl2177]

What?

Now imagine MC or Steve doing that.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

I too will be spending my first playthrough on legendary. I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

[NobleGundam]

October -
2nd: The Thursday War.
5th: FUD
?: New Halo 4 Trailer Frankie Joked about??

 

[Stinkles]

I would think they would be done with that by now..

we were. Last second retake. Normal ADR thing.

 

[u4iX]

U4ix's little aside talmbout your dude saying things in response to you doing something in game reminds me of the little giggle Noble Six would randomly do when you got a headshot in campaign.

That'd be so sick. If they really want the spartan to feel like "yours," I think added different style voices for your character would be great. Different attitudes to represent your playstyle, and you'd be able to hear your character as well.

Ugh, it'd be such a nice little touch and I think it'd work really nice for people who don't have or use mics a lot online. I think it'd actually make the MP more engaging than just a silent, grunting, exploding, huffing and puffing battlefield.

 

[_Computer_]

The best way to play campaign is a 4 xbox LAN with friends. I plan on having a little Halo 4 campaign party with lots of snacks and booze. There is nothing like it. When somthing epic happens. Everyone looks at eachother like OMG. You just can't get moments like that online.

 

[CyReN]

we were. Last second retake. Normal ADR thing.

So you are saying you can add things last second..

Spoiler

i kid

-----

I would usually start Campaign first, but this is the first Halo I haven't played before hand since H2 for mp, so I want to dive into that for a few games then get into SP.

 

[Woorloog]

The best way to play campaign is a 4 xbox LAN with friends. I plan on having a litte Halo 4 campaign party with lots of snacks and booze. There is nothing like it when somthing epic happens. Everyone looks at eachother like OMG. You just can't get moments like that online.

This is extremly fun (minus the booze, and snacks, hate grimy controllers). But not for the first playthrough. Too much distraction.

 

[Caja 117]

I too will be spending my first playthrough on legendary. I wouldn't do it any other way.

The first playtrough Im going to do it on a 4 player co-op, so it will depend on what difficulty everyone decides, eventually Ill do the solo legendary run.

 

[lybertyboy]

So you are saying you can add things last second..

Adding audio file ≠ feature.

Spoiler

You kid.

 

[CyReN]

Adding audio file ≠ feature.

I edited it, was joking.

Kinda weird though seeing how close it is to Gold, seem like the March blowout was last week.

So did I.

touche'

 

[lybertyboy]

I edited it, was joking.

So did I.

 

[Woorloog]

Adding audio file ≠ feature.

I was going to ask whether you'd have to redo lipsync for that (or change cutscenes etc somehow otherwise) but then i remembered the Chief wears a helmet so lipsyncing is not a big deal...

 

[FyreWulff]

I was going to ask whether you'd have to redo lipsync for that or change cutscenes etc somehow otherwise but then i remembered the Chief wears a helmet so lipsyncing is not a big deal...

Head-nod-sync.

 

[Rickenslacker]

I prefer playing on Heroic, both in general and on my first time through. The difficulty settings in Halo are a bit skewed, Normal is more like Easy, and Easy is more like comatose. Heroic gets a nice balance of challenge without being too punishing, at least on the untreaded waters of a first playthrough.

 

[Woorloog]

Head-nod-sync.

Oh, yeah, gotta show when the Chief is speaking. Though it occurs to me previous Halos do have points where the Chief is motionless while speaking. I think. Gotta replay the games i guess.

I prefer playing on Heroic, both in general and on my first time through. The difficulty settings in Halo are a bit skewed, Normal is more like Easy, and Easy is more like comatose. Heroic gets a nice balance of challenge without being too punishing, at least on the untreaded waters of a first playthrough.

In Halo 3, there was quite a leap beetween Normal and Heroic. The Heroic was a sweet spot but still that jump was a bit strange. Isn't in any other Halo IIRC.

 

[Trey]

That'd be so sick. If they really want the spartan to feel like "yours," I think added different style voices for your character would be great. Different attitudes to represent your playstyle, and you'd be able to hear your character as well.

Ugh, it'd be such a nice little touch and I think it'd work really nice for people who don't have or use mics a lot online. I think it'd actually make the MP more engaging than just a silent, grunting, exploding, huffing and puffing battlefield.

It would be nice. But some would get irate over it. Look no further than the contingent of people who dislike armor effects.

Gotta agree though, Marcus' "nice!" is pretty dope. Would be interesting to hear something similar in H4.

 

[Tawpgun]

Voice is usually later on, because it's hard/impossible to change it after the fact if you modify something.

Spoiler

martyhastheoriginalendingtohalo2recordingstill.wav

Still want to know the ending. What do they have to lose? I loved Halo 2 and its campaign. Knowing what could have been wont make that go away.

 

[Computron]

Perfect .GIF.

What's it from?

 

[Woorloog]

Still want to know the ending. What do they have to lose? I loved Halo 2 and its campaign. Knowing what could have been wont make that go away.

The final mission was called (placeholder) "Forerunnership", IIRC.
The Ark would have been on Earth, no?
EDIT Truth would have been the final boss, i guess.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Frank, David, what's your schedules look like for PAX? Any free time for a meet-up with some HaloGaf guys/gals?

Also Frank, I have yet to hear a status on the water in Halo 4.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Still want to know the ending. What do they have to lose? I loved Halo 2 and its campaign. Knowing what could have been wont make that go away.

We know the broad strokes. There was a big final mission on Earth, where the Chief and the Arbiter's story arcs came together and they fought side by side to take down Truth. The cinematic to kill Truth apparently plays out much as it did in Halo 3, with some of the same dialogue.

At least, that's what I've been able to piece together from commentaries and other bits and pieces.

 

[Nando13]

Perfect .GIF.

What's it from?

Breaking Bad last chapter

 

[Woorloog]

We know the broad strokes. There was a big final mission on Earth, where the Chief and the Arbiter's story arcs came together and they fought side by side to take down Truth. The cinematic to kill Truth apparently plays out much as it did in Halo 3, with some of the same dialogue.

At least, that's what I've been able to piece together from commentaries and other bits and pieces.

Huh... interesting. Never knew about the Arbiter being in it as well. Logical, now that i think of this.

 

[FyreWulff]

Still want to know the ending. What do they have to lose? I loved Halo 2 and its campaign. Knowing what could have been wont make that go away.

I dunno. Maybe they feel it'll re-open old wounds, or something in there was repurposed for later Halo games.

Some of the unused lines ended up in Halo 3. It was mentioned somewhere that Arbiter's "I will have my revenge -- on a Prophet, not a plague!" line was originally recorded for Halo 2.

edit: Ghaleon'd

Huh... interesting. Never knew about the Arbiter being in it as well. Logical, now that i think of this.

You can see the Slipspace Portal level on the whiteboard in the Making Of for Halo 2, shows Arbiter (still named Dervish at the time) standing next to Chief looking at the portal.

 

[GrimBrother One]

I generally think that the collectible itself is often worth the effort: in Halo, and in other games like Gears, they usually have interesting facts/tidbits/plot material on them that makes them interesting enough to track down, apart from the challenge in doing so.

This. Granted, I love getting Achievements, and so oftentimes I'll put in the effort if it's not too frustrating to collect stuff to grab a good Cheevo, but sometimes it's just not worth it. It definitely comes down mainly to the collectibles themselves. In Assassin's Creed, I loved grabbing the Animus Fragments and the "Rifts" because they added so much to the story as well as being fun to find and hunt down. Same with the Terminals in Halo games and the collectibles in Gears. Even Bioshock's Audio Logs were a very cool addition to the narrative.

Are you going to be staying at Rukari, too? Damn. Sounds like a party house non-stop if so.

Are you kidding? I was the FIRST ONE staying there, lol. And yes, it's going to be ridiculous.

Halo 3 Terminals were amazing. I prefer them more than Anniversary's terminals. Don't get me wrong, the Anniversary terminals were great but I love the interactivity of 3's terminal. The story content was amazing at that time and there are some questions open. I hope Halo 4 and Silentium answers some of those question. Maybe I should ask Voc at PAX.

I loved them both for different reasons. I'd be just as happy if they decide to go either way with the H4 Terminals. I love the visual aspect of CEA's, but agree that I would like to see more expansive questions answered/opened up like were in H3's.

 

[raindoc]

Legendary. There is no other option for the first time playthrough.

nah, i like to increase the difficulty in later playthroughs, increases replay-value imho.
furthermore, i want to concentrate on the story and do some exploring on my first play through, can't do that on Legendary, maybe not even on Heroic (one knew how to handle Elites/Brutes etc in the past games - with new units like the Prom-Knights it wont be as easy).
I'll start H4 on Normal.

 

[senador]

They worked exceptionally well in BF3. (The only game that has tried)

I think CSS/TF2 is the best structured online experience to date.

I guess that is a matter of opinion. I fucking hate the server browser in BF3. I really fucking hate it. Its such a pain to find a game with open slots, figure out if it's the settings you want, and get in before thr spots fill. Some nights it totally turns me off of playing.

Define them working "exceptionally well" in Battlefield 3 for me. They lead to unbalanced teams in both number and skill, never quite know what you are going to get, admins have all the control, and the first X pages of servers fill up while the tons after that sit empty. I do not see how they have been effective or successful at all.

I really really prefer matchmaking. I am not pleased with 343'd playlist management and what it might mean for Halo 4, but if still prefer that over a browser. Choice can be good, but I feel in a browser form it's far more hassle than its worth and I absolutely believe it wouldn't not benefit the population and longevity of a Halo game in any way.

 

[GrimBrother One]

I always do Heroic solo for my first run through a Halo Campaign, and then Legendary solo.

Same here. Heroic with the other GrimBrothers for first run, Solo Legendary afterwards.

 

[FyreWulff]

Here it is

From Halo 2 making-of

 

[Akai__]

Adding audio file ≠ feature.

Spoiler

You kid.

Is there a chance, that you are releasing the campaign audio as a downloadable content for foreigners (aka international Halo 4 editions with bad synchro)?

 

[Barrel Cannon]

I'll take a crack at it.

I love playing Halo 1 and Halo 3 on Legendary. Part of the reason those games were tough yet fun was because while there were more enemies and they were tougher, the Chief wasn't reduced to a delicate flower to make it hard.

Take the game on Legendary Firefight I had the other night with Fyre and company. Beachhead, and everyone else is dead. I'm running from Jackals and Hunters. I snag rockets, and tag a Hunter with all four. He's not dead.

I run down to the waterfront and grab the Spartan Laser there, and scope in for the kill....and die. I was at full health! Not from a grenade. Not from a FRG.

From a Jackal. On Legendary, an overcharge shot from a Jackal strips yours shields and puts you deep in the red for heath. The Jackal followed up with a couple plasma shots, so he killed me in less than one second. One Jackal.

I don't find that kind of difficulty fun.

But there's more to it. Because I'm so fragile, Brutes and Elites can one-punch me to death, and it can take 3-4 hits to kill say, a Jackal.

Now factor in the base traits. If a plasma grenade gets tossed near me, I will try to avoid it. Only, my momentum prevents me from changing directions quickly, my base speed prevents me from moving fast enough when I do, and my low jump means I can't get out of the way in time, and the speed with which plasmas blow up means I die, despite reacting fast enough.

That means close quarters combat is out of the question. And since guys like Jackals can kill you instantly, that means Legendary on Reach is all about hunkering down and doing nothing but long range fights, hoping not to get hit because I'm such a fragile little thing. And that's not fun; Halo is fun to be because of all the options I have at my disposal, and Legendary in Reach strips a huge swath of those options away.

In Halo 3 Legendary, I would still rumble toe to toe with Brutes and other enemies, since they didn't kill me instantly. I still used the full combat sandbox because the game still encouraged it (and even required it - the range of the BR prevented super long range donging).

It felt, in short, more fair. Reach's Legendary does not feel fair to me, and I can't stand it.

Obviously, I can't explain why you have fun with it. I'm glad you do! But I think Legendary in Reach is really, really borked.

Great post! The bolded parts are so key to the faults of reach's campaign/firefight sandbox. Dodging grenades isn't that bad though but when it's multiple grenades like the grenade spam you get in firefight it's a lot more difficult to avoid unlike in MP where you aren't getting bombarded by 4 grenades at once(usually).
Firefight in reach sort of limited you to the DMR/Needlerifle/plasma pistol if you wanted to do well. ODST in that regard still has the best firefight mode. The weapon sandbox fits perfectly in the title and theres a lot more mix up of close and long range battling naturally happening(partly because the map design was better overall).

 

[Woorloog]

Here it is

http://i.imgur.com/IpLWZ.jpg[IMG]

From Halo 2 making-of[/QUOTE]

Oh, yeah, Dervish. Never paid attention to that "Chief/Dervish" line on that pic.

The Portal was originally the Ark itself, it seems.

 

[squidhands]

nah, i like to increase the difficulty in later playthroughs, increases replay-value imho.
furthermore, i want to concentrate on the story and do some exploring on my first play through, can't do that on Legendary, maybe not even on Heroic (one knew how to handle Elites/Brutes etc in the past games - with new units like the Prom-Knights it wont be as easy).
I'll start H4 on Normal.

hahaha, oh shit I'll never call them anything else now. Their weakness is their poorly tied cummerbund.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

I agree with Ghaleon's write up on Legendary. It feels like, to make it hard, Bungie just made the enemies better shots/have more health and made the main character weaker, and do less damage. That's it.

On a side note, just took November 6th off. Voting and Halo for everyone! I'll play MP a bit after the midnight launch, then play SP the next day.

 

[Tawpgun]

We know the broad strokes. There was a big final mission on Earth, where the Chief and the Arbiter's story arcs came together and they fought side by side to take down Truth. The cinematic to kill Truth apparently plays out much as it did in Halo 3, with some of the same dialogue.

At least, that's what I've been able to piece together from commentaries and other bits and pieces.

Was it planned to be a Trilogy then? What would have been left for Halo 3?

 

[FyreWulff]

Oh, yeah, Dervish. Never paid attention to that "Chief/Dervish" line on that pic.

The Portal was originally the Ark itself, it seems.

Yeah, it was. I've always wondered if this was from the H2 version of the Ark/Portal level:

edit: Cortana/Floodgate (used to be one continous level) in Halo 2's engine:

 

[Navidson REC]

Preferences - Appear Offline
Notifications - Off
Play Halo 4

enjoy

I should really try to play without notifications. Then again, I like to unlock achievements out of the blue. Maybe I should just resort to not looking at the achievements prior to playing the game. At least I could avoid another "This Heresy Will Stay Your Feet" debacle this way... It almost made me hate the final level.

Always go Normal for any first playthrough of a game.

That would have reduced my enjoyment of Alan Wake a lot. Glad I didn't do that.

I always do Heroic solo for my first run through a Halo Campaign, and then Legendary solo.

That's pretty much what I'm gonna do, except the second playthrough may be in coop if friends are available.

 

[Tunavi]

You guys must have REALLY loved squad slayer for all the grief that came out of its removal.

I haven't had fun playing Halo since it got cut.

 

[senador]

Was it planned to be a Trilogy then? What would have been left for Halo 3?

I don't know the full answer, someone else probably does, but the trilogy was never planned all the way through. They probably would have just made more story up after Halo 2 shipped then wrapped that around all the gameplay features they had in mind.

I'm excited for this Halo trilogy since it is all planned out, somewhat anyway. It should flow much better and make more sense.

I haven't had fun playing Halo since it got cut.

I have doubts you have even played Halo.